Caseville pursuing cooperative agreement for junior high football

TRACI ANDERSON-WEISENBACH

Published 8:00 pm, Sunday, September 25, 2005

CASEVILLE  This school district has cooperative agreements with the Owendale-Gagetown School District for high school football, track, and soccer. After some community members inquired about the possibility of adding seventh and eighth grade football as a cooperative agreement during a recent school board meeting, the Caseville Public School Board of Education agreed to pursue it.

Superintendent Dr. Dan Tighe said the next step is to request the approval of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, which needs to approve all such cooperative agreements. Tighe said it's very likely the MHSAA would allow it, but it's up to the association to make the final decision.

In this cooperative agreement, Owen-Gage would provide the equipment, scheduling, coaching, and the venue. Caseville seventh and eighth graders would travel to Owen-Gage for practices and would be responsible for going to the home and away games, Tighe said.

This is the same cooperative agreement the high school football team has, he said.

In relation to the cooperative agreement, the board discussed whether or not students should be allowed to drive students to cooperative sports activities. A question was raised about this, Tighe said, and the board reviewed the issue. Ultimately, the board decided to keep its current policy which allows no student to drive another student to school activities. Instead, a school-owned vehicle will be provided for parent volunteers to transport students to such activities.

In other business, the board voted to hire Shannon Marion as a science teacher for grades five through seven. Tighe said the school received about 24 applicants for the position, which is a high number for a small school.

The board heard a report about usage of funds from the Qualified Zone Academy Bonds are being spent. Currently, the funds are being spent on several kitchen renovations. In the future, the funds will be used to do gymnasium renovations. QZAB is a federal interest-free loan program in which qualifying schools can renovate or rehabilitate school buildings, along with certain other projects. It's not for new construction.